Sweet, Sweet Story...

This past Saturday, I helped out at our church's Special Needs Respite while Nana came to play with the girls. This gave parents of special needs children a place to let their kids play in a safe environment.

I was buddied up with a 16 year old boy named Matthew. Before meeting Matthew, all I knew about him was that he is in an electric wheel chair which he can "drive" with his hand and is pretty much non-verbal. I had no idea how to interact with Matthew or what to do with him once he got there.

Once he arrived, his mother helped me get to know his wheel chair and all of its fancy functions. His chair has 4 speeds and a really, really sensitive "stick" allowing him to go where ever he pleases. His mother asked my name and then said to Matthew, "This is Pam, she is going to help you today. Can you say her name, Puu Puu Puu Pam?" Matthew said, "Am". "Yes, Matthew, Pam will help you today." With that, his mother was off.


Instantly Matthew looked at me and said, "What are you doing today?" as best he could and I said, "I am going to play with Matthew all day." Matthew said, "Why?" I said, "Because I am your friend." Then, we went to each of the stations in the gym and talked to others that were there. Matthew especially liked playing with the bean bags and trying to throw them off of his tray that is attached to his wheel chair. He had several pictures on his tray of where he had been and all the places he had seen. He had a picture of Barney and everyone that saw that picture would ask him who that purple dinosaur is. He would say without hesitation, "Barney!" and then smile as big as he could smile.

Matthew asked me ""What are you doing today?" about 20 more times and I responded the same way each time. So... then I thought maybe he wold like to go outside. After about 15 minutes walking in the parking lot we went back in and found a fish tank. Matthew loved looking at the fish. We spent about an hour walking from one end of the hall to the other and back so he could touch the tank. He was so good in his chair that he could almost parallel park it to get close enough so he could feel the glass. After each time of this he would say,"You ready to go walk?" I would say yes and off we would go again.

Anyway.... I appreciated being able to help Matthew that day. He made me realize how lucky I am for the healthy girls I do have. I came home Saturday and told Katelyn about Matthew. I told her that his legs don't work and he has to sit in a wheel chair all day long. That night before Katelyn went to sleep, we said a little prayer for Matthew. We asked God to be with Matthew, to let him be as comfortable as he can be and to be with is mother and father to always be good parents to Matthew.

Then, last night as we were finishing our prayers, Katelyn said, "Wait Momma, we forgot about Matthew. God, please fix Matthew's legs." I told Katelyn that God made Matthew that way for a reason and he probably could not fix his legs. Katelyn looked so serious and said, "But, Momma, God can fix anything."

Yes, Katelyn, God can fix anything.